That process has been both enhanced and complicated by the arrival of modern technologies. For example:
New pesticides have greatly helped the farmer manage weeds, insects and diseases. But they’re not cheap; and they’ve likewise required him to invest a lot of time educating himself in their proper use.
Seeds carry new genes that allow the crop to be safely sprayed with a broad-spectrum herbicide that would otherwise kill it. Other genes give plants the ability to stave off damaging insects without the use of an insecticide. Such advances seem a blessing for the farmer and for the environment. However, many consumers (often possessing only minimal familiarity with the topic) are still hesitant to accept foods with a biotech background. That hesitancy reverberates back through the marketing channels to the farmer.
New lines of tractors, combines, sprayers and tillage equipment offer efficiencies unmatched by their counterparts of 20, 10 or even five years ago. Yet with retail prices running in the neighborhood of $150,000 to $175,000 for a large self-propelled combine or 4WD tractor, many Northern Plains farmers must stick with older and/or smaller equipment — especially in these times of poor prices for nearly all major commodities.
Like companies and individuals in virtually every other segment of the economy, the agricultural community, in varying degrees, has embraced the Electronic Age. Along with home office computers, many farmers now use computerized planter monitors, sophisticated sprayer technologies, GPS-based yield mapping and variable-rate fertilizer application programs and other systems that less than a generation ago would have seemed straight out of Star Wars.
The Internet and e-commerce also have arrived on the farm. All sorts of surveys testify to the farmer’s use of the Net. In one this past winter of sugarbeet growers in Minnesota and North Dakota, 34 percent of respondents reported accessing the Internet on a daily or weekly basis. Numerous agribusinesses now have Web sites, and new e-commerce options for producers are popping up.

Change has been a constant in farming, but there’s no denying that the rate of change has accelerated tremendously within the last decade or two. Certainly technological advances were made during the 18th and 19th centuries, but they were minor in comparison to what’s transpired in the 20th century. As the 20th century began, “horsepower” still looked, smelled and ate like its namesake. Now, horsepower roars from beneath the tractor hood and sustains itself with gallon after gallon of diesel fuel.

Plant breeding provides a similar story. “Genetic engineering” has been occurring for countless centuries, ever since ancient agrarians first cross-pollinated two plants in an attempt to produce offspring with an improved trait. The science of genetics took a huge step forward in the 19th century, courtesy of Gregor Mendel, and subsequent breeders have helped generations of farmers continually increase yields, overcome diseases and improve the quality of their crops. Many of the recent biotech breakthroughs are, in essence, a much faster way of achieving what breeders have been trying to do all along.

Much of what we accomplish in our own personal and professional lives is simply the newest link in a progressive chain that stretches back through the generations. Compared to our grandparents’ time, however, today’s chain links tend to be forged much more rapidly — so rapidly that our minds, not to mention our pocketbooks, often have great difficulty keeping pace.

In today’s world, the farmer’s foot remains firmly on the accelerator. He’s just moving a lot faster and with a lot more horses at his command.

Ag writer Don Lilleboe hails from West Fargo, N.D.